Springfield City Council unanimously voted to send an expanded fire levy to the ballot Monday in hopes of recovering the true cost of providing fire service.
Springfield city leaders have spent the last year looking for ways to fix a structural imbalance in its city budget. The city made some budget cuts in the short term and is in the process of considering several ideas a task force of community and elected leaders recommended.
One idea was increasing the fire levy from 38 cents to 53 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. The task force also recommended increasing the public safety levy and reducing library funding. Those ideas are months, or even years away.
The expanded fire levy is headed to the November ballot, where voters will have the final say.
If the levy passes, it likely won’t have much impact on this year’s planned budget cuts, but could help avoid further fire reductions in the future.
The expanded levy would grow the revenue source from approximately $2 million a year to around $3.2 million a year.
